Local community-funded radio station WMNF brings a mass of local, national and regional talent to Ybor City every year for a multi-venue genre-crossing music fest, Tropical Heatwave. We're counting down the weeks leading up to the 31st annual event — set to occur on Saturday, May 12, and encompassing 13 stages and more than 60 performers — by featuring our top 10 favorite acts, the ones you can count on to bring the fire to this year's Heatwave. Check out the first three picks here.
Next up: The Preservation, an unsigned quintet from Austin.
Group founder/guitarist Mario Matteoli is a northern California native who re-located to Austin at 19, and by 25, was opening for big name acts like Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard with his bluegrassy group, The Weary Boys. He met his vocalist/percussionist wife Cayce while both were members of a short-lived psyche rock project and toured together as a duo until 2009, when they formed The Preservation with drummer Josh Wienholt, bassist Ben Burdick (who played with a pre-Honey Bears Black Joe Lewis) and keyboardist/guitarist Andy Bianculli.
This article appears in Mar 22-28, 2012.